Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 234

At the same time, let Jingji Company and Li Jing fully surface, and tie the emperor to this chain of interests.

Zhu Youjian got the benefits, so he must do his best to protect his money bag, and the matter of Li Jing's crossing the border has also been concluded, no one will talk about it in the future, and Jingji Company has no worries.

For Li Jing's deduction, Ma Wu is really admiring now.

Therefore, when Wang Chengen asked if he could give part of the tax to the palace, Ma Wu agreed without thinking.

Smiling, Ma Wu said, "Brother Wang, what's so difficult about this matter? I can be the master of Jingcheng Jingji Company. From next month, I will pay taxes of 3000 taels to Da Nei every month."

Wang Chengen shook his head, he certainly didn't come here for the few thousand taels of silver from the capital.

After raising his cup and drinking tea, Wang Chengen said: "Brother, the elder brother is an internal official, and he is not allowed to socialize with local officials. Otherwise, I can directly talk to Li Jing about this matter. There is no need for brother to embarrass you. My brother will not hide it from you." , 3000 taels of silver are of no use to the emperor at all, can you tell Li Jing that half of the taxes paid by Jingji firms all over the country are sent to the palace every year."

Ma Wu was taken aback, then smiled and said: "Brother, wouldn't it be over if the emperor issued a decree for this matter? Do you still need to tell the brother in private?"

Wang Chengen shook his head, sighed and said: "It would be great if I could do that, brother, you don't know the rules in the court, you don't know the power of them, let me tell you this, some things, even if the emperor You can’t just do it casually.”

Ma Wu listened, pondered carefully for a while, and then understood the key.

Ma Wu is no longer the bandit who only knew how to rob homes and houses in the past. After so many years in the capital, he has made friends with countless important officials and dignitaries of the court, and he also knows three things about the affairs of the court.

Since the day when Zhu Yuanzhang established the dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, no emperor has privately withheld taxes from the household department.Zhu Youjian privately asked Li Jingjie to send half of the tax to the palace. If anyone knew about it, he would be sprayed to death by those officials.

After thinking for a while, Ma Wu smiled and said, "This matter is up to the boss to decide. How about this, I will write to the boss right away, and I will reply soon."

Wang Chengen nodded slightly.

Wang Chengen knew that Ma Wu had no right to give him an answer, but as long as Ma Wu told Li Jing about his meeting, Li Jing would definitely agree.

Jingji Company transferred half of the tax to the emperor, and at most the people from the household department and local officials would find some trouble, but as long as Li Jingding topped it, it would be over.

In addition, Zhu Youjian did not ask Li Jing to pay more, but only transferred half of the tax to him.Asking Li Jing to pay more, it is difficult to guarantee that Li Jing will not disclose the news, so Zhu Youjian will wait to be scolded by the officials.

Moreover, if such a sum is recorded in the history books, then Zhu Youjian's reputation as a faint king will be determined.

What the emperor fears the most is that his disgraceful side will be recorded in the history books and become a negative teaching material for future generations.

Of course, it will definitely be beneficial for Li Jing to help Zhu Youjian take the thunder. The so-called lack of manpower, Zhu Youjian took Li Jing’s money, so he must take care of him. If someone impeaches Li Jing in the future, Zhu Youjian will definitely help Li Jing suppress it. .

What Zhu Youjian didn't expect was that Li Jing quickly replied to him, and the result of the reply made Zhu Youjian both happy and surprised.

Fortunately, Li Jing promised to send half of the taxes to the palace, and in order to avoid the inconvenience of escorting the silver, Li Jing asked the Jingji Bank in the capital to issue Zhu Youjian's exchange bill directly. Take out the silver.

Surprisingly, Li Jing said in his reply, how can this amount of tax money be spent every year? If Zhu Youjian agreed to hand over the salt lake in Yuncheng to Li Jing for management, Li Jing would send Zhu Youjian 100 million taels of silver every year.

After hearing Li Jing's news, Zhu Youjian was dumbfounded.

You must know that Daming's annual tax quota is only 400 million taels of silver, in fact, only 200 million taels can be collected, but Li Jing opened his mouth to 100 million taels, which is equal to half of Daming's annual tax.

One million taels of silver, this tone is too big!

After thinking about it, Zhu Youjian said to Wang Chengen, "What are Li Jing's specific conditions?"

Zhu Youjian couldn't be tempted. He was almost worried about money all these years. Now that he can earn 100 million taels of silver a year, his life will be much better in the future.

Wang Chengen said: "Li Jing's condition is to cancel the previous salt administration system in Yuncheng Salt Lake, withdraw all court officials, and let Li Jing arrange people to manage it. At the same time, he wants the emperor to issue a decree and re-establish the salt price."

Zhu Youjian pondered: "He wants to reset the price of salt, is he going to raise the price of salt?"

Wang Chengen shook his head and said, "Not only did the salt price not increase, it is said that it is much lower than our original salt price."

Zhu Youjian Daqi: "Then how can he hand over 100 million taels of silver a year?" "

Wang Chenen shook his head with an embarrassed expression. If he knew how to do it, he would have set up a salt factory to help the emperor earn money.

"Promise him, as long as the salt price he sets is lower than the court's price, I will promise him, anyway, those salt officials won't get much money in a year." Zhu Youjian said.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Youjian continued: "If Li Jing has other conditions, as long as they don't violate the court's laws and regulations, he will agree to them all!"

Wang Chengen nodded, thought for a while, and Wang Chengen said: "This old slave wants to take a leave of absence from the emperor. This old slave wants to see how Li Jing handles the salt affairs in Pingyang Mansion. If it is useful, come back and tell the emperor. implemented in one factory.”

Zhu Youjian was stunned when he heard this, and then realized that Wang Chengen wanted to help him get more money.

Gently patted Wang Chengen's shoulder, Zhu Youjian sighed: "Big companion, you're getting old, you should stay in Beijing, wait for Li Jing's side to fix it, then go and have a look. Li Jing's side Didn’t you send Zhang Cheng to supervise the army? Let him take a good look and learn. By the way, Zhang Cheng is a killer, why didn’t he report when Li Jing went to Henan to help the disaster?”

Wang Chengen smiled wryly when he heard this, and thought to himself that such a powerful person as Li Jing, would it be of any use for you to send him a supervisor?It is estimated that Li Jingquan has lived a happy life somewhere long ago. Don't talk about disaster relief in Henan, Li Jing probably doesn't know even if he rebels Zhang Cheng.

Thinking of this, Wang Chengen was startled suddenly. Li Jing would not be so confused. Even if the supervising army did not report such a big matter, the court would know sooner or later. Wouldn't that expose him to control the supervising army?
Immediately Wang Chengen smiled wryly, his comprehension was a bit poor.

Li Jing went to Henan for disaster relief, whether Zhang Cheng knew it or not, it would be a serious dereliction of duty if he didn't report it. Li Jing actually found an excuse for the court to transfer back to the supervising army. He should have told the emperor about this matter long ago.

However, if the emperor asks now, it will definitely be useless to use this excuse again. We must find a reason that can explain the past.

After thinking for a while, Wang Chengen said: "Your Majesty, after Zhang Cheng arrived in Shanxi, he was not acclimatized and became seriously ill. This old servant has been busy all this time, so he forgot to tell the Emperor."

"Oh?" Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen suspiciously.

Wang Chengen smiled wryly: "Yes, I heard that if Li Jing hadn't gone around to find a doctor for him to treat his illness, Zhang Cheng would have died by now."

Zhu Youjian didn't believe Wang Chengen's nonsense, but after thinking about it, he knew the reason.

Sighing, Zhu Youjian said: "Since he is sick, let's call him back. In the future, Li Jing will not send a supervisor. If he rebels, it doesn't matter whether he has a supervisor or not."

Wang Chengen nodded, knowing that Zhu Youjian had been suspicious of Li Jing for a long time.

In fact, it's no wonder that whoever becomes the emperor has to be suspicious when he finds out that there are people like Li Jing in the locality.

Not to mention that Li Jing defeated more than [-] bandits with only a few thousand militiamen, his financial resources alone are also unavoidable.

But in the current situation, Zhu Youjian can't do anything to Li Jing anyway. Except for the wrong thing about crossing the border without authorization, Li Jing did everything else for the sake of the country. He can be called a great loyal minister. If everyone wins, then Da Ming is really hopeless.

However, Wang Chengen knew that Zhu Youjian's character was extremely forbearing. In order to win Wei Zhongxian back then, Zhu Youjian repeatedly showed weakness to Wei Zhongxian, and finally took him down in one fell swoop.

Now Zhu Youjian is afraid that he is playing the old trick again. As long as the time is right, Li Jing will definitely be taken down.

But can Li Jing be the same as Wei Zhongxian?

Li Jing is not only rich, but also has soldiers. It is said that once when Cao Wenzhao talked about Li Jing's militia with his subordinates, he said that if his troops confronted Li Jing's militia, no one would be killed.

Even an army as powerful as Cao Wenzhao can't defeat Li Jing, who else in this world can defeat him?
For a person like Li Jing, he can only be comforted. Once he is stimulated, the consequences will not be as simple as a rebellion.

What Wang Chenen doesn't understand now is that Li Jing Hengkong was born, neither greedy for money nor greedy for power, so what is his reason?
Wang Chengen only half believed that Li Jing was serving the country and the people, because what Li Jing is doing now is indeed for the common people, and he is more loyal to the court.

But Wang Chengen believed that Li Jing was by no means so simple, otherwise why didn't he hand over the elite soldiers to the court?

It is said that Li Jing's militiamen only knew about Li Jing but not the imperial court, so they rushed at this. If Li Jing was a good citizen, Wang Cheng'en would never believe it.

Wang Chengen believed that Zhu Youjian also saw this, so he was suspicious of Li Jing.

It's just that to deal with people like Li Jing, we must start as soon as possible. The longer the delay, the fuller his wings will be. Once he grows up, he will never be able to deal with it.

But now there is no reason to clean up Li Jing.

Thinking of Li Jing leaving the country without authorization a month ago, it was really the best opportunity to do something to Li Jing, and I didn't want Li Jing to dodge it by using some means.

Moreover, Li Jing has now become Zhu Youjian's treasury. If Zhu Youjian wants to spend money, he can't do anything to Li Jing. He can only watch Li Jing's strength grow stronger and stronger.

What frustrates Wang Chengen the most is that even if he finds out the problem, he can’t tell Zhu Youjian, because it can be said that Li Jing became Zhu Youjian’s treasury. Looking for sickness for yourself?
Wang Chengen took the initiative to board Li Jing's pirate ship, and he couldn't report it after he found out that it was a pirate ship. One can imagine the depression in Wang Chengen's heart.

(End of this chapter)